Or too much of a blank slate on which the audience could project their impressions of a great villain. I have never heard a reason WHY he is supposed to be such a great villain. I think he's much like the Fetts in that way.

Definitely. That's the power of all Lucas' villains but Vader, to an extent (that is, between 1977-1983.. ROTJ fleshed out Vader quite a bit). Lucas has always been great at creating instantly iconic, B-movie villains that he let the audience flesh out as they wish. As soon as they appear, the audience fall in love with those villains. Vader, Fett, Maul, Palpatine. He let the design team go a bit over the top with Maul. Lucas tamed their enthusiasm for episode 2, some of them had created all these uber-cool new sith apprentices beforehand, Lucas arrived with his script and Count Dooku (he wanted a return to the Peter Cushing type of character from ANH - that's why he went and cast his friend/colleague Lee who had the same background). Lucas had to remind the design team that the uber-sith apprentice had to remain Darth Vader, the guys were more obsessed with bringing him creations that would top Darth Maul.



The visual aspect drove Lucas a lot for sure. It's not only the VFX, there's a great deal of visual subtleties in the series, like a great deal of symbolic work with colours. Lucas came from an experimental filmaking background, and it's still present in his approach. He saw SW as a space opera hybrid of popular samurai movies (which he was a fan of, though they were very little known outside cinephile circles back then) and westerns.

Lucas eventually got caught up in the story and the mythological aspects, however. That the mythological aspects worked was something he didn't compromised on after he got Campbell's imprimatur and had this "SW: The Power of Myth" exhibition sponsored by LFL travelling museums around the world and trying to show to the more educated people an certain image of the saga. Lucas can be a bit vain. Originally he was saying SW was just for fun, but back around the time of ESB, after Campbell told Moyer in an interview that for him SW was the perfect modern myth and that it was the reason for its success, Lucas suddenly got interested to present SW has something that ran deeper than just pure entertainment or a VFX fiesta.

I have no problem accessing my inner 7-10 year old, so maybe that's why I like them.

That's it, precisely. I was that age when ANH came out, and a huge fan, but afterward I left it behind as something from childhood and I re watched it for nostalgia's sake, much the same way as E.T. or Disney movies.

I didn't get hyped by the Phantom Menace. I saw the trailer once, didn't build up expectations. I went to see it weeks after the release when the crowds would be smaller. I wanted Lucas to transport me back to when I was 7, and he didn't disappoint.

The prequels movie got very good reviews from nearly everyone who reviewed them as movies for kids.

And the real testimony to the success of the prequels is the fact their popularity endures just like the OT back in the day. Ask any elementary school teacher what their boys are really into these days, and Star Wars is still in the top five and often the first answer of the teachers I've asked (my brother was telling me two days ago his 8 y.o. were all excited that last week-end they'd go see TPM in a theater and in 3D), and it's not for lack of competition. It's because the "Lucas magic" still works with his target audience just as much as it did back in the 80s.

One thing people also have long forgotten. The SW bashing is nothing new. All the movies got their fair share of atrocious reviews (and detractors) back then, and they're very little different from the bad reviews the prequels got, attacking the movies for the very same things... thin plot with tons of holes, weird structure (that was for ESB), shallow characters, atrocious dialogue, immature humour and terrible acting. One dimension that didn't get any attention was the fact the actors played on blue screen, as back then people had very little idea how the VFX were done.